Rob's Rantings

I just went to a Digital Learning Environment workshop through HP, and Intel. The workshop was good as usual, but what gave me a bad taste afterwards was my thinking about all the gadgets and new technologies that I would probably never have in my classroom because of the lack of monies available to get them and because of low expectations and low vision. In order to use these technologies, such as tablet PC's, you need to be able to purchase them and purchase a significant number of them to use for a classroom or computer lab. I believe there is a way to get the funding for these types of technologies but the fundraising and grant writing that would need to be done might be tremendous. It makes me angry every time I attend one of these events, because in essence I know I will go back to my urban school and not be able to really use or get the types of technologies that might be required to teach my students the latest technology.

How do they do it? How do teachers day in and day out continue to try and teach students who seem to come to school with a myriad of problems, social ills and skill and learning deficits. It would seem it would take the patience of job and the generosity of spirit of Jesus to make this happen and on some days you might be correct about that assessment. Been thinkin about how I have been able to be motivated everyday to come to work and work with students who daily challenge your perception of teaching and why you became a teacher. Just today I had to deal with students who appeared burnt out and ready to give up. By the time they came to my class they practically had nothing else to give or so it seemed. Do we push them beyond measure, or do we try to find a way to gently guide them through. Well, I've always been a sucker for the softer side so I tried to gently guide them through. I decided to have the students play a game dealing with comma rules instead of drill and kill them w